Halo developer Bungie has announced today that it has signed into a ten year publishing deal with Activision to bring the “next big action game universe to market.”
Activision has secured exclusive rights to publish and distribute worldwide for all future Bungie games based on the new intellectual property, although Bungie will be allowed to keep its independence and retain complete control over its intellectual property.
The new game will be available for all platforms, as to which publisher Sony has stated CVG that “marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 fans Halo on steroids.” It remarks Bungie’s departure of exclusivity from Microsoft for a long while. Readers interested in what this means for the future of Bungie can check out their open letter to the community. Nevertheless, Industry Gamers points out that the announcement of Activision-Bungie’s parnership effectively ends the Bungie made Halo series. For Halo fans, it has to be a somber day given the uncertainity over how Microsoft will carry the fruitful IP after the release of Halo: Reach.
Giant Bomb brought to light the unfortunate circumstances that plague Activision considering the terms of the deal has to resonate ironically with the former heads of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella who have gone on to form Respawn Entertainment and partnered with former employer Electronic Arts. G4TV’s Patrick Klepeck has been keeping up-to-date with the developing situation and should definitely be read up on. Again, the irony seems to all demonstrate the terms that West and Zampella were looking for with the Call of Duty series.
